Strange request: Publish our press release but don’t attribute it to us

On 4 July 2013, at 10:30 am (GMT+5), we received a press release from the email rajanzed@gmail.com. The name of the sender was Rajan Zed. It was about a singer of Turkmenistan origin, aspiring to ‘hit the world dance floors with her songs.’

Since it is mandatory under journalism ethics to attribute the material to the source, we mentioned at the end of the story: [Press release, Rajan Zed, 4 July 2013]

However, in a few hours, we received an email from the same address and with the same sender name, asking us to remove the attribution to ‘Rajan Zed’ from the story. We replied that the attribution is to the source from which we received the press release and if they can give any other source, we will mention it.

In turn, the sender, presumably Rajan Zed or someone using that name and address, made some preposterous suggestions. The sender suggested that we should either remove the entire attribution line i.e. carry the story without any attribution, or just say that it is a press release without disclosing the source or say that it is ‘From A Correspondent.’ The sender wrote that if none of these ideas were acceptable to us, we should remove the story from our site.

We have complied with the request and removed the story from our site.

Nevertheless, this smells fishy. It is the first time that we have received such a strange request. The desire to remain anonymous while trying to promote a budding artist is indicative of some hidden motive.

For the sake of transparency, here is the email exchange that took place between nCa and the sender: